Re: Astronomy Texts

["Margaret Mazzolini" <mmazzolini@swin.edu.au>]

The choice of an astronomy text really depends on how large your 
course is - i.e. how many classes - and what level of maths (from 
none to lots) you will include, depending on your audience.  There 
are lots of reasonable books to chose from.
For a one semester, 26 lecture general interest astro. course I have 
been using Zeilik's "Conceptual Astronomy". I really like the astro. 
approach in it, for my group of mainly biological sci. students, 
though the bits where they explain fundamental physics concepts I 
like less.  I like Michael Seed's book a lot too, but I have trouble 
with his "stars first" approach.
The other factor is how recently it's been revised - i.e. does it 
have recent Hubble results & pictures in it.  Astro. books can date 
awfully fast right now!  I won't use the Zeilik book again next year 
(we have different semester times to you) unless a new edition comes 
out.
I also like Kaufmann's "Discovering the Universe" - a bit pricey (the 
rep. told me that it costs about $10 more because of the "free" CD!). 
It has a lively writing style & presentation, and is more up to date 
(though even it could do with updating).  The CD has the book on it, 
which seems to be a waste of time to me BUT it also has all the 
images (full size) incl. many from the Hubble, and a number of good 
simulations.  I've been using it in lectures this year for most of my 
visual material - my library of astro. slides is gathering dust. The 
CD also has some multiple choice Q & As, plus links to their web site which is 
quite useful.
I've used Abel's Exploration of the Universe in the past, as part of a 
longer course (80 lectures). It's quite good, but I've read livelier texts in my 
opinion.  However it may have a new edition - worth checking out..
Cheers
Margaret

> I know many of you teach Astronomy.  I've seen a lot of discussion about
> physics texts and I'm curious to learn what folks think about intro astronomy
> texts. 


Dr. Margaret Mazzolini
School of Biophysical Sciences and Electrical Engineering
Swinburne University of Technology
P.O. Box 218,
Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia
email: mmazzolini@swin.edu.au
phone: (61 3) 9214 8084   fax:   (61 3) 9819 0856